Seek Role Models
(Copied for fair use from SWIM WITH SHARKS WITHOUT BEING EATEN ALIVE by HARVEY MACKAY.)

Well, the truth is, we’re not all Bannisters … and we don’t have to be first to succeed. As one famous political figure said, ‘It’s the pioneers who get all the arrows.’

 

In the restaurant business, you never want to be the first operator in a location. Usually the place has to pass through three or four sets of hands before there’s a fit between restaurant, the location, and the market that’s being served.

 

The trick is to benefit from the Bannisters without having to take the arrows. The people who ran the four-minute mile after Bannister had done it succeeded in large part because they had Bannister as a role model to prove it could be done.

 

When Bannister accomplished it, the others were able to psych themselves up and do the same thing. Who (or what) is psyching you up? If you think about why you are the way you are, chances are it has a lot to do with trying to be like someone you admired. You observed and you copied that person’s mannerisms. Sometimes, to win his or her approval, you patterned your whole lifestyle after that person. And you didn’t become permanently cynical just because you discovered at age fourteen that Mom and Dad weren’t perfect and that Simon and Garfunkel were right: Joe DiMaggio has gone and he ain’t ever coming back.

 

You never stop needing role models. The Bannisters and the superstars in every other field keep right on holding role models in front of their eyes long after they’ve become role models themselves. They study them, copy them, compete with them, and even try to surpass them. It doesn’t end with childhood. They’re constantly goading themselves to meet new challenges. They top old role models, then they find new ones. They top themselves, and they set new goals. What better way to measure yourself, to feel good about yourself, and to achieve than trying to be like people you admire? Look at yourself in the mirror. If you like what you see, don’t forget that you want to feel the same way tomorrow morning and the morning after.